RadioSonic Transcript

Grant Lawrence: Welcome back to Radiosonic
everybody, I'm Grant Lawrence and this is
CBC Radio Two. And in just a few minutes
time Elijah Wood and Franka Potente will
be here to talk movies and talk music and
spin their favourites. And why are these
two big time movie stars on our little
radio show tonight? Well, stick around and
you'll find out. Basically they just love
music and caught wind of our show and
wanted to.. heard that we have the guest
dj thing happen and they wanted to come
down. They'll be playing music like
Gomez, Cornelius. They'll be playing some
Kruder & Dorfmeister. Old stuff.
Television. The Stooges, as well as Clinic
and Pulp. Possibly even, if we can fit it
in - what was that other one that I saw
that was of interest - oh, Idlewild, I
haven't heard from them. And something
from NZ of course, where Elijah did all
that Lord of the Rings stuff. The Clean, I
think he's going to be playing for us as
well.

[Cut out some stuff like the news and whatever.]

GL: Welcome all our listeners from around the
world tuning in tonight on Real Audio. We
have had email about this from every pocket
of the globe. Little did we know. Thank
goodness for computers. It is now time for
the Elijah Wood - Franka Potente Escapader
Hour.

[Couple of songs.]

GL: Welcome back to Radiosonic everybody,
this is the Escapader Hour. My name is
Grant Lawrence and this is CBC Radio Two
we're going coast to coast to coast in
Canada. This is a very special..
Elijah Wood: Is that three coasts? *laughs a bit*
GL: Yeah, three coasts. This is a very special
Escapader Hour, might as well, yeah okay sure, it's
a celebrity edition of the Escapader Hour. Joining
me tonight is Franka Potente. Hi Franka.
Franka Potente: Hi Grant. How are you?
GL: Good thank you. And Elijah Wood. How are you
doing?
EW: Very well, thank you.
GL: Thanks a lot for coming down.
EW: It's a pleasure. This is sort of a dream come
true, actually. *laughs*
GL: Why don't you first tell us what you're doing
in Vancouver, first of all.
EW: Well the two of us are actually here, making a
movie, a small movie called Try Seventeen,
little independent film. We've been here about a
month so far.
GL: Okay. And how are you enjoying Vancouver?
EW: Love Vancouver.
GL: Yeah.
FP: Yeah. I'm actually glad we're not shooting in
LA. It's a lot more.. it's less dirty air. It's more
cosmopolitan. It reminds me of Berlin a lot, I have
to say.
GL: Okay, great. And that's where you're from?
FP: Well, that's where I live at the moment.
GL: And Elijah you're from Iowa?
EW: Originally, yeah.
GL: And but now LA.
EW: Now Los Angeles. I've been there for like 13
years, so I essentially grew up there.
GL: So basically, people are going to be out there
in Canada and going what they heck are these guys
doing on Radiosonic. You know, usually it's musicians
and...
EW: They just ask me that going down the street:
"What are you doing in Vancouver?" *geeky laugh*
GL: Yeah and so, you two are bonefide fans of
basically the kind of music that we play on the show.
EW: It so happens.
FP: Yes.
GL: And so you've brought in a whole hour plus
maybe of songs that we're going to hear tonight.
EW: I could have brought so much more. *geeky laugh*
GL: So, what kind of music are we going to hear?
EW: We're going to listen to some Clean, which is
actually a band from NZ that I became familiar with
while doing LotR. Some Cornelius, Japanese kind of
artists. Uh, Gomez. The White Stripes, which I'm sure
plenty of your listeners are familiar with. Idlewild,
The Hives.
GL: Great.
FP: Some, I brought some German bands. I want to
make them popular here. We're going to listen to
Einstuerzende Neubauten, which means "Collapsing New
Buildings."
GL: Great, well, again, we're very excited to have
you here.
EW: Thank you.
GL: And so, well we'll talk later. I'll ask you
about making movies and all that kind of stuff a
little later. But uh music now. So uh..
EW: Let's cut to the music.
GL: Let's keep rolling. So what's the first band
we're going to hear?
EW: Alright, this is The Sneaker Pimps. This is
actually off of their third record, which is as yet
unreleased. So this is kind of an exclusive for y'all.
*giggles* Pulled this off the internet. They've been
around for a long time, since '97 I think was their
first record. They had a female vocalist initially.
The female vocalist, Kelli Dayton, left the band -
creative differences - and they released another
record with one of the main songwriters doing the
lead vocals. This is their latest effort, to be
released on Tommy Boy Records.

[Songs.]

GL: Welcome back to Radiosonic everybody, this is the
Escapader Hour CBC Radio Two.
Someone - EW?: Escapades. [Said in a kind of
childish voice.]GL: I'm Grant Lawrence and that is Elijah Wood,
yes I said Elijah Wood from LotR. And over here is
Franka Potente. And uh, from yeah, Run Lola Run. Yes,
the same. *Franka giggles* And they're here in
Vancouver doing a movie called Try Seventeen.
What's the movie about?
EW: Uh..
FP: It's about Elijah. Only about Elijah. *Elijah
laughs* And about wet dreams and cleaning those up
and having..
GL: What is it, like a teen thing?
EW: NO
FP: Cause he gets to kiss Blondie in the film.
EW: Debra Harry was actually in the film.
FP: He's making out with her in the film.
GL: Really, she was flown to Vancouver to be in
the movie?
EW: She actually was here for..
FP: To kiss Elijah, yeah. *Elijah laughs*
EW: She was here for something else. It kind of
worked out that she was here. So she worked with us
for two days. Debra Harry was on set for two days.
FP: Just Elijah.
EW: Yes, yes.
FP: Well that's a good reason to see the movie,
don't you think?
EW: It was a, I had to kind of make out with her
to a certain degree because my character.. I have a
fantasy about her.
GL: Okay.
EW: But the movie is basically *Franka kind of
snort/laughs* a coming of age story *E and F both
laugh* about my character named Jones, who moves to
this house with, that's seperated into apartments
and it's about his relationships with the people in
the apartment building.
FP: I'm amongst those people.
EW: I'm, I'm.. Jones kind of falls in love with
her character.
GL: Okay, and, this movie going to sort of come
out amidst the LotR stuff right. Is it sort of hard
to come maybe down from a epic..
EW: It's great. It's a relief. I think I, I've
been particularly going for something a lot smaller.
So I was much more interested in the smaller kind of
scripts than anything. That's partly why I chose it.
GL: And uh, you're obviously, you're both music
lovers and that's what we're doing tonight, you're
picking this whole hour. All these music choices are
yours. *Elijah makes a weird noise* So why don't you
tell us what we just heard there.
EW: Uh, well, we did, we heard The Bee's, that
was the last track. The Bee's are from the Isle
of Wight, I believe. Pretty new band. They only have
an EP out at the moment, called Punch Bag,
and that was the name of the song that we heard.
Before that was Brian Eno and David Byrne, from the
album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. It's a
wicked kind of mixture of two very interesting
artists. And before that was The Sneaker Pimps. A
song called "Sick" off of Bloodsport.
GL: Okay, great. And I hear that that you have
been frequenting our local independant record shops
quite a bit. *scary Elijah laugh*
EW: It get's around.. I think I have.. It's
something that Franka's had to become very used to
because every weekend I have to have my time for CD
shopping.
GL: Really?
EW: Yeah.
GL: Like how many do you buy a week?
EW: Uh...
FP: Twenty for me, ten for you. *GL makes an'is
that so' type noise* Yeah, I'm lucky, I get
everything.
EW: I buy her a lot of records.
GL: K, now, I don't know if you want to pick
favourites but what's your top Vancouver independant
record store?
EW: Oh... *FP whispers something - I think
"Scratch" You know, Scratch is really good, actually.
And I hadn't been to Scratch before. Because I've
spent some time in Vancouver before and the last time
I was in Vancouver I frequented
Zulu,
which moved across the street and up a block. I loved
Zulu. [So do I! Clearly it's like.. meant to be or
something. *g*] So I'd have to say Zulu is probably
still my favourite.
FP: We just went there today.
GL: So what's next?
EW: We're actually heading into a little bit of
Gomez, a band from England that I've been into for
a while and this is off their new record, called
In Our Gun.

[Songs.]

GL: And welcome back to Radiosonic, the Escapader Hour.
I'm Grant Lawrence and we're joined by two very special
guests tonight. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves.
EW: I.. uh.. Elijah Wood, over here.
FP: Franka Potente over here.
GL: And thank you so much for being here and that was
a great track.
EW: Yes, Cornelius. *F laughs, then so does E* YES!
Cornelius. I was actually in Japan for the first time
recently and I wanted to try and see if Cornelius was
playing or
FP: At the Japanese [something.. EW's voice covers
it]
EW: .. see some Japanese bands. Yeah he's Japanese.
And uh,
Buffalo Daughter,
I had a friend to go hang out with who kinda hooked me
up with hanging out with Buffalo Daughter but I never did
anything about it. I had like Sugar's number and I didn't
call her.
GL: But you're a Buffalo Daughter fan?
EW: Yeah, love Buffalo Daughter, absolutely. And the
new records very strange and I still haven't gotten into
it quite yet. But Cornelius is wicked. And before that
was Gomez, off of their new record.
GL: We were talking about how we, by fluke, both saw
them..
EW: Around the same time.
GL: Around the same time. New York City. I think 1998
for a CMJ [? I think..] I might be maybe a year off. For
CMJ and were both bored by them and we both now
appreciate them.
EW: Yes. Yeah. I was even more bored, actually, when
I heard their first single and I thought umm.. no. And
it actually took me a good two or three years to come
around. But uh, they're fantastic.
GL: Now, I want to ask you, I've just been looking
over some of your old bios here and there. Seen a couple
of weird things. Is it true that you both fence?
*Elijah laughs*GL: Is there any truth to that whatsoever?
EW: He's done his research.
FP: I used to fence.
GL: You used to fence.
FP: I don't do it anymore.
EW: I used to fence as well.
GL: So is that just a complete fluke..
EW: Total fluke.
GL: that you're now friends and I'm mean this is kind
of..
FP: Friends and fence and friends
GL: Fence and friends. It's a new sitcom!
FP: We should fence together..
EW: *In dorky announcer type voice* It's 'Fence and
Friends'
FP: Fencing friends.
GL: But so uh,. you fenced in your own separate lives..
FP: I fenced in Munich actually.
EW: What year? Maybe that intersected?
FP: Oh, um. Probably seven years ago.
EW: Uh... yeah.
FP: When I was 20. I don't know how old you were seven
years ago when I was 20.
EW: Yeah, that's close to what I was [something..] as
well.
FW: *laughs* That's close to what..
GL: It's kind of an aristocratic sport, isn't it
fencing.
EW: It's very good for the posture.
GL: And so, have you ever fenced each other?
EW: No. We're thinking of taking lessons again.
FP: Yes. In LA we'll start the fencing thing.
GL: So you're chatting with each other and then one
day one of you just said "You know, I really love to
fence." And then you said..
All: So do I! *laughs*
FP: I don't know, I think we had, I think it was
raining and we had an umbrella and one of us was doing
fenching movements with the umbrella and this is how it
came up.
GL: I see.
EW: Is that your story?
*Franka laughs*EW: She's just made up a complete lie.
FP: No!
EW: But it sounds good.
GL: Alright, well.
FP: I was.. *Elijah laughs* ..whatever. I'm not
going to fence with you now, anymore. Fence yourself.
*Franka laughs*
GL: Is it true Elijah that you're going to shows
with the kid from the Osbornes?
EW: Uh,. yeah. My sister actually hung out with the
Osborne family before I got to know them. But Jack and
Kelly I know quite well.
GL: Are you surprised by the rampant sucess of this
tv show?
EW: No, because they're incredibly fascinating. Um,
I'm not surprised. They're funny. They're endearing.
And the fact that they have their own show so that
people can get a look at them is absolutely brilliant.
And I'm not surpised they're so sucessful. It's
fantastic. But strange, I'm sure, for them.
GL: I was mentioning earlier to you before we
started doing this, that I'm picking up what I
thought was a NZ accent but you were saying its more
British.
EW: Probably because I spent so much time, well I
spent so much time in NZ, but mostly around, you know,
the British actors. So yeah, probably pieces of NZ as
well.
GL: I saw you on the Academy Award there with uh,
is he sir yet?
EW: Sir Ian McKellen. They apparently flashed to me
15 or 20 times, which is really bizarre. I don't know
what I was doing up front.
GL: I can't believe.. I was sh..
FP: You were looking good, that's why. *Elijah
laughs*
GL: I was pretty choked that he didn't win.
EW: Yeah, so was he, I think.
FP: They'll win next year. Next year.
GL: Oh right, cause he's got like three shots at it.
FP: Yes.
EW: Yeah, he does.
GL: Who was that guy with him.
EW: Uh, that's his boyfriend, who's actually from NZ
as well.
GL: Oh really. Everyone wanted to know, 'who's that
guy?'
EW: "Who's that guy?"
FP: Well, they were holding hands. It's probably not
his brother.. or his uncle.
GL: Could've been his son.
FP: I don't know.
GL: Looked like a fairly young man.
EW: Yeah, that was his boyfriend. And his boyfriend
is from NZ. So he actually met him on the film and
imported him *GL and FP laugh* to London.
GL: Okay, how about music from NZ. You were down,
how long were you down there for?
EW: I was down in NZ for 15 to 16 months.
GL: And you have to go back, right?
EW: I have to go back for like..
GL: For like another month?
EW: ..two, three weeks of pick ups for film two.
GL: So you're down there. You obviously, wherever
you are, you discover music wherever you go and NZ was
no different. So you got a NZ track for us, lined up
EW: We have a track here by a band called The Clean,
which was apparently highly influential to The Pixies.
The Pixes have cited them as an influence. They're part
of a sound in NZ called the Dunedin sound. There is a
place in NZ called Dunedin, and during the mid to late
80s there were quite a lot of bands to come out of
Dunedin, and this is one of them.

[Songs.]

GL: Welcome back, this is Radiosonic on CBC Radio Two,
the Escapader Hour, a very special one because we have
two film stars with us today. Elijah Wood from LotR
*elijah makes a musical noise which I can't possibly
explain* and the first movie I ever saw you in, The
Good Son.
EW: Oh, right. With Maculey Culkin.
GL: With Little Home Alone, yeah.
EW: *laughs* Little Home Alone.
GL: And I think I also saw you in Internal Affairs,
which was a couple years earlier.
EW: You know, I didn't actually get to see that
until I was 15 or 16.
FP: That's a movie with Richard Gere?
EW: Yeah.
GL: Yeah, yeah.
FP: He's in there for two seconds. I saw it. I saw
you too.
EW: But I wasn't actually old enough to see the
movie when it came out.
GL: And what were you like?
FP: He doesn't say anything...
EW: Eight.
GL: You were eight.
FP: ..he just gets hugged by his mother in the
film, I think.
EW: And I said "No don't. Stop that."
FP: Really.. *laughs*
GL: And Franka Potente is here from Germany. And
we're going to get to some German music in just a
second. Because, Franka you've been sitting her so
patiently as Elijah..
FP: Oh, I have nothing to say, I'm very boring.
GL: Elijah has picked most of the music we've..
in fact.. pretty much all of it since we've heard so
far this evening.
FP: That's okay.
GL: What don't you tell us what we heard in that
last set.
EW: That last set was uh, the last song we heard
was
Idlewild
off of 100 Broken Windows. They're a band from
Scotland. They're pretty wicked. Uh, before that was
The White Stripes,
off of their new record. And before that was The
Clean, which is a NZ band. So if you weren't sitting
down I'm sure that probably knocked you on your ass
that set. *laughs*
GL: Yes, I would think so. And again, a little
more rocking. The White Stripes we were talking about
them, out of Detroit, and many things are happening
for them, they're exploding all over the place. They
were on Letterman. And all this stuff.
EW: It's unbelievable.
GL: People are calling Detroit the new Seattle,
which I'm sure uh..
EW: We've got bands like The Von Bondies now coming
out and..
GL: I heard that you two went down to see them in
Vancouver.
EW: At The Pic. [Piccadilly Pub. Here's a picture
from that
show.
[Of the band, not Elijah. (Thought I should clarify.)]
FP: So how was that show?
EW: That was a great show.
GL: Yeah, what'd you think of that club?
EW: Uh.. narrow, or long.
GL: Yeah, yeah.
FP: Is that the one we could smoke at?
EW: Yes, well that was a bonus, we could smoke
there.
GL: You both smoke.
FP: Yeah.
GL: And you're just put off by this Canadian
movement to ban smoking everywhere.
EW: But it's not as bad as LA. It's actually
better than LA. LA is much worse.
GL: Oh really.
EW: So it's a little more of a relief.
FP: Germany is much better.
GL: Oh yeah. Europe, forget about it.
Everybody's puffing.
EW: Oh it's great.
FP: Yeah.
GL: Now
Mar,
in the booth here, our AP, she was like "You
smoke?"
EW: Yeah, I'm sorry. She's against it. I
really enjoy it.
GL: Do you get heat..
FP: Elijah has great skin, you wouldn't think
he smokes like he does.
GL: Do you get heat from your fans over your
smoking?
EW: No, not so much and if I do I don't really
pay attention to it.
GL: Just go with it.
EW: Yeah.
GL: Okay, so now over to you Franka, just give
people a little bit of background. *Franka laughs*
Run Lola RunFP: Run Lola RunGL: Everybody's seen it, everybody knows you
from that. But of course, your first US film was
Blow. That's correct? With Johnny Depp?
FP: Correct. With Johnny Depp.
GL: But you've also music in your background,
because - now correct me if I'm wrong - did you
compose the theme to Run Lola Run?
FP: I wish I did. No, I didn't compose it. I
just basically sang three songs for that.
GL: Okay.
FP: I got an MTV award for it.
GL: Oh really? Congratulations.
FP: MTV Europe.
GL: So you did three songs on that soundtrack?
FP: I think three, yeah.
GL: We gotta dig that up. I gotta find it.
FP: Yeah. Try and find it. Play "Wish" though,
that's my favourite of the three.
GL: Now you have some German music for us to
play, so..
FP: *Franka laughs* Well, I'm glad you enjoy
that wonderful music that Elijah got because the
next song from
Einsturzende Neubauten,
which means - what did I say? - Collapsing New
Buildings
GL: Collapsing New Buildings. And Elijah you
had some metaphor..
EW: It's just anti-establishment.
FP: Yeah well. Because it's awful. It's very
progressive. But it's loud and weird. It's I
guess what we call Industrial. Actually, a very
very very important band. Didn't only influence
German bands, also they had connections to
London, English music. Besides music - you will get
an idea when you listen to it - they did a lot of
spoken word, all sorts of arts. Very influential.
GL: We'll hear them and a couple more. Then
we'll chat some more. This is Franka Potente's picks
on The Escapader Hour, Radiosonic CBC Radio Two.

[Song that starts with a barking dog. Then some other
songs. In my not very humble opinion, the third song
in this set kicks at least 15 different kinds of ass.
LOVE IT.]

GL: And welcome back to Radiosonic everybody, I'm
Grant Lawrence, and just enjoying some German beats
there. If you've just turned in, it's a very special
show tonight. We have with us Elijah Wood from LotR
and Franka Potente from a number of movies. Lo.. Run
Lola Run, etc. And that set was put together by you.
So why don't you tell us what we heard there.
FP: Well, as I said we started out with
Einsturzende Neubauten, some Industrial '80s German
influence important band. After that is a band that
I loved in the 80s
Phillip Boa and the Voodoo Club.
GL: Yeah, we were rocking out to that.
FP: They have an American name, but they're
actually German. I don't know if they have an accent
to you, they don't to me.
EW: No, they sound American to me.
GL: I heard a little bit of Euro-feel to it. A
little Nina type..
EW: Yeah, there was.
FP: And uh, Phillip Boa and the Voodoo Club.
"Lunatics Over Brighton" is from their Copperfield
album, in case somebody is inspired and wants to buy
it. You can buy it here, I bought it here. And Kruder
and Dorfmeister. So three very different..
EW: Which, yeah.
FP: What about them?
EW: No, no no. I was just going to say Kruder and
Dorfmeister, which is probably familiar to a lot of
people.
FP: Probably the most familiar.
GL: Oh yeah, they do a lot of remixes and uh..
EW: Well, they put out that K&D Sessions, which is
pretty unbelievable.
GL: Yeah, good cross-section of German music. So
thank you very much.
FP: You're very welcome.
GL: Well listen, now, we mentioned that you're a
singer. Are you continuing that?
FP: I don't consider myself a singer, even though
some people made me sing for Run Lola Run.
EW: *laughs* They made you?
FP: That's basically how it happened.
EW: They threw you into a room.
FP: I had no desire whatsoever. In acting school
I did take classical singing classes. But for Run
Lola Run they didn't have money to pay a singer
and I would sometimes come by the studio. And they
were like 'do you mind singing a layout? ["A
layout"? Dunno. Can't tell.] We don't have anybody
who can sing it. Can you do it really quick?' And I
did it. Didn't require much, it's more like spoken
word. And they were like 'Oh that sounds great. Do
you mind if we put it on the CD?' and I was like
'No that's cool. Sure.' And they mixed it a little,
shook it a little and it's basically what the
outcome was.
GL: And now, Elijah, now correct me if I'm
wrong, are you not also a singer of some kind?
FP: He sings pretty well, I think.
GL: Are you taking singing lessons? Am I just on
a totally wrong track here?
EW: No, I.. well yeah.. no..
FP: You're taking singing lessons?
EW: No. No.
GL: That's incorrect.
EW: Well, I did. I did take singing lessons for a
little while because actually, I actually auditioned
for that Baz Lurhmann movie..
GL: Oh, Moulin Rouge.
EW: Moulin Rouge. I'd auditioned for it and they
required people to sing. So I went and did a little
voice coaching and all that. And uh, yeah. That was
about it.
GL: So no rock star aspirations..
EW: But I'm actually on the soundtrack to
North, the movie I did called North. I'm
on the soundtrack to that. And I sing a portion of
"If I were a rich man" because my character in the
movie is on stage and does a little performance for
school and they ended up recording me for the
soundtrack. *Franka laughs* So yeah, there's my
singing venture.
GL: Now see a lot of these rumours come from the
web. That brings me to the question of who is Marcus
Neidler? [Don't know if I spelled that right, not
going to check.]
FP: Huh?
EW: Marcus Neidler?
GL: You ever heard that name before?
EW: That sounds kinda familiar.. why?
GL: He seems to run elijah-wood.com. Any idea who
this person is?
EW: No.
GL: Okay, is this just a fan site?
EW: Yeah. [He actually makes one of those noises
that means yes but is impossible to spell.]
GL: There's quite a few of them, eh?
EW: elijah-wood?
GL: elijah-wood.com
EW: Yeah, no. I don't personally know him.
GL: I thought maybe could he be a friend.
FP: I don't actually have an official website. In
fact, there was a website that was calling itself
offical, which was not. But I don't really believe
in having an official website. [Kinda burps.] There's
something.. the idea of self-promotion.. yes I
burbed, excuse me.. the idea.. *FP and GL laugh*
that's right.. the idea of self-promotion kind of
freaks me out.
GL: Well, I'll do some promotion for you. You may
be wondering what these two people are doing on
Radiosonic
EW: What are we doing in Vancouver of all
places?
FP: I don't know.
GL: Working on this movie, Try 17.
EW: Going to the hockey games.
GL: Also with, who was it.. Mandy Moore. I had
never heard of her. You guys are like 'what the hell,
you haven't heard of Mandy Moore?'
EW: That's okay.
GL: Our listeners will jump all over me for not
knowing Mandy Moore for sure. [Actually Grant, they
probably won't.]
FP: She did the song *sings* 'A walk to remember..'
*laughs*
EW: For the movie. There you go! Cause Margaret
sings it at work.
FP: Our make-up woman sings that song.
EW: A walk to remember. Which is a movie that Mandy
is in as well. *Franka sings it again and laughs*
GL: I just want to reiterate that you have.. you
guys have picked all the songs that we're playing
tonight.
EW: Yeah, I brought my big old CaseLogics with me.
GL: It's a real eclectic set list and this next
band we're going to get into, I love them too.
EW: It's really weird. Well they released, it's
interesting, they got a lot of press in England and
they released a compilation there, called Your
New Favourite Band, which is a compilation of the
first three records.
GL: We're going to start rocking in this set.
EW: Let's rock with
The Hives.

[Songs.]

GL: Wow. That was a great set. So welcome back folks,
it's The Escapader Hour, wrapping up here an extended
Escapader Hour. We're here with Elijah Wood and
Franka Potente, I love saying that name.
EW: Is it..
FP: Say it again, I like to hear it.
GL: Franka Potente. Half German, half Italian. Is
that right? Well,.. the name of it is.
FP: Well, 1/16th Italian. It's a German-Italian
name, yes.
GL: Yes. And it's been a great thrill having you
guys here. We really appreciate it.
EW: It's been a thrill to do this.
FP: I think so too.
GL: For the kids of Canada, playing all the great
tunes. So Elijah, why don't you tell us what we just
heard in that set.
EW: We heard some music from New York, some music
from England, and The Hives - where are they from? -
they're from Sweden, aren't they?
GL: You got it.
EW: So, the last band was Clinic, a little band
from I guess Liverpool. Not at all like The Beatles.
They're actually being compared to Radiohead, as the
sort of, the kind of more recent Radiohead, which is
interesting. Very atmospheric.
GL: Yeah, they seem a little more like Indie Rock.
Did you, have you seen them live?
EW: Clinic? I haven't. They just played Vancouver,
I completely missed out.
GL: They were in Toronto a little while ago.
Apparently they were like surgical masks.
EW: Yeah, that's their thing. And in all the
publicity shots: surgical masks. Before that was
Television. They are sort of being cited as an
influence, as are The Stooges to a certain degree, to
the band we all love, The Strokes. The sort of poster
boy band.
GL: In fact sometimes not very, like people say,
"Strokes? Ah, just listen to Television."
EW: Exactly. Television's great though, and that's
a wicked track. Before that was The Stooges,
Iggy Pop's early band. They're just brilliant. It's
just pure rock power energy.
GL: Franka and I were shaking it with the hand
claps. *Franka laughs* That's excellent.
EW: So good. And before that was The Hives. Your
new favourite band.
GL: Yeah, "Die, Allright."
EW: They're billiant.
GL: That's what we heard, wasn't it? Was it "Die,
Allright?"
EW: "Die, Allright." Yeah. So awesome.
GL: Great track. So listen, we're just about out
of time, as I said. We want to thank you again for
coming in and doing this.
EW: Thank you.
FP: Thank you for the invitation.
GL: It was a very eclectic mix. Really appreciated
that you know what you're talking about.
FP: I don't.
EW: Well I love music, so passionate about it.
*Franka snort/laughs* *Elijah giggles*
GL: And you're all over the place, and you do, you
have like you're here in Vancouver, I guess you've
been here for about a month, making the film Try
Seventeen. When are we going to see that in the
theatres?
EW: Probably sometime next year. I heard a rumour..
FP: Summer I would guess. No?
EW: Well, nah, I think they might wait to release
it, until after Sundance. They might want to take it
to Sundance. That's my inclination, I could be wrong.
GL: And you get to make out with Debbie Harry.
This is the big selling point. With Blondie. That's
amazing.
EW: And Mandy Moore for those who know her.
GL: What's the age difference between..?
FP: And me.
GL: Oh and you too?
EW: Yeah, in the movie, yeah. My character, I
didn't realize it, but he gets a lot of action.
GL: Do you make out with Mandy Moore, too?
EW: Yeah.
GL: Wow, you're all over the place.
EW: Yeah, all over the place.
GL: Okay, and LotR. What a trilogy to be involved
in. [Not a trilogy. Dumbass.]
EW: And The Two Towers is coming out again, so
that's going to be great.
GL: So, I don't know like, what it must be like
to sign onto a project like that where you're, you're
just set. I mean, I think the movie is pretty great.
EW: It's awesome. I mean, I'm biased but I can
still see it as a fan and I think it's unbelievable.
It overwhelmed me.
GL: So how did you get that part? I heard there's
an interesting story about a home movie or something.
EW: Yeah, I did my own audition tape because I
didn't really like the idea of going into an office
and being shot against a white background. Plus I
knew that they were looking primarily for an English
actor so ... [tape cuts out here] ... barefoot, I had
the hobbit outfit.
GL: Now, is it really your hair or did they put a
wig on?
EW: In the film it's a wig. [Thank god. Imagine
having to live with that mullet cut for over a year
of your life.] And prosthetic ears and prosthetic
feet.
GL: What about the other hobbits? Did you get
along with those guys?
EW: Those guys are like brothers to me now.
GL: Like, what's the guy, you know the guy with
the fam.. Patty Duke's son?
EW: Sean Astin.
GL: Yeah, Sean Astin, from The Goonies.
EW: He's like family. I mean, I spent, you know..
Going and seeing the movie, it's an incredible
experience for people and they go through a certain
journey. But making the movie for me was more of a
life experience than a filmic one.
GL: I can imagine because there is three of them.
EW: Yeah.
GL: That's amazing. And I guess, I heard that you
got a tattoo with your fellow hobbits.
EW: That's right.
GL: Like, some number, or something?
EW: Yeah, Elvish number nine. Stands for the nine
members of the fellowship.
FP: Did you get two towers somewhere as well, or
just..?
EW: The two towers? No. I was thinking about
getting a scar actually over my left breast cause um,
Frodo gets stabbed by a Morgul blade and the wound
never fully heals.
GL: What in the first one?
EW: In the first one, by the ringwraith. And I
thought, wouldn't it be cool, to get a tattoo of
just a simple sort of scratch that will never go away.
GL: And even more interesting is you actually have
The Ring.
EW: The Ring.
GL: And so, what's the story there. How did you?
Did they just give it? Was it lying around the set,
you picked it up? *Franka laughs*
EW: It was a gift, cause you know, we used it every
day, so the ring was kind of commonplace.
GL: Was there only one?
EW: There were a few. And varying sizes as well.
But they gave me one that had been used I guess the
most. And they gave it to me after the last set of
pick ups that we did for the first movie. So I went
back, did some extra footage and stuff for the first
movie while they were still in post. I went to the
editing room to say goodbye to Peter and Fran and they
were like 'Oh, we've got a gift for you.' And so I
opened this box and there was this kind of a wooden
box, this really beautiful wooden box, and I thought
'that's cool.' And they were like 'No, open the box.'
So I opened it up and there was a pouch inside with
the ring on the chain. So I have the one ring.
GL: And where do you keep that?
EW: Hidden away, actually, I don't take that out
too often.
GL: It's valuable. Well, Elijah Wood and Franka
Potente. We thank you for being here on CBC Radio
tonight.
EW: Thank you so much, it's been so much fun.
FP: Thank you.
GL: It has been a lot of fun. And uh..
EW: I hope all of you out there have enjoyed the
music.
GL: Yeah and we'll look for the two of you in
Try Seventeen in a few months or so or whenever
it happens to hit the screen.
EW: Whenever it happens.
GL: And you're going to leave us with
GL and EW: One Last Song
EW: That's right. This is
Pulp,
off of Intro, which is a kind of - I don't know
- it's a weird record for them. It's kind of got a lot
of synth in it. It's a sort of synth poppy kind of
record. More of an EP than anything. This is called
"Styloroc (Nites Of Suburbia)" and it's just a wicked
song.
GL: K, well thank you two.
EW: Thank you.
FP: Thank you. Danke.
GL: Thank you, you two. That's what I mean to say.
Okay, bye bye.
EW: Bye.